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Page 20 — Office Properties Quarterly — April 2015
Design
byMichelle Z. Askeland
Embracing a work environment that
offers a variety of choices to encour-
age collaboration is now a staple in the
workplace. However, while it is impor-
tant to promote collaborative areas, the
need for a balance between collabora-
tion areas and focus areas is crucial to
create a successful workplace environ-
ment.
“I think the key is to understand why
clients want a collaborative space,”
said Michelle Liebling, senior associate,
design director, Gensler. “There’s a lot of
discussion about innovation and how
to foster innovation in the workplace,
and a lot of that can be through col-
laboration.”
The term collaboration might be too
general a phrase to encompass the
many aspects of creating a social envi-
ronment.
“By its very nature, collaboration is
not easily managed,” said Mary Kay
Sunset, principal, Semple Brown.
“Groups tend to form spontaneously,
thus participation is a self-motivated
choice.The designer’s role is to help
their client foster conditions that
encourage collaboration and a sense of
community to flourish.”
This ad-hoc engagement is repre-
sented in a variety of ways, said Joy
Ramsey Spatz, studio director, senior
associate, Gensler. People may have the
expectation that a conference room
satisfies this need for a collaborative
area, but the conference room alone
does not, she said. Collaboration can
be learning, meetings, one-on-one
connections or focusing on something
together. “Collaboration does not only
happen in one room,” she said.
The benefits of collaborative work-
places are a topic of a variety of studies
and research. All three firms inter-
viewed cited research to support that
these environments foster worker sat-
isfaction, innovation and productivity.
“Our own research has shown that
top-performing companies actually col-
laborate more and socialize more,” said
Liebling. “The idea is to provide oppor-
tunities for people to do their best
work, because when people are doing
their best work, they’re satisfied, and
when you have satisfied people, you
have higher levels of engagement and
this is a positive chain reaction.”
“Its been fairly well substantiated at
this point that collaborative environ-
ments tend to be more dynamic, cre-
ative and innovative,” said AmyTabor,
director of facilities planning, RNL.
“They are also the norm for younger
generations who grew up in educa-
tional environments that stress project-
based teamwork, and a technological
environment where they are always
connected socially and professionally.”
Almost all of the clients of Gensler,
RNL and Semple Brown are embracing
some form of collaborative workspaces
– however the environment in which
they do so varies.
“All of our clients are embracing
better support of collaboration,” said
Tabor. “Not all of them are doing it in
the same way. For some, it’s an effort to
increase designated spaces where col-
laboration can occur and be supported.
For others, it’s an effort to make sure
that collaboration can occur anywhere.”
In order to create the best solution for
the company, it’s important to under-
stand that each corporate culture is
different. Needs and desires vary from
client to client and from one industry
to another, said Sunset. “There is no set
formula.”
“Creative” professions, including
advertising, marketing and sales, may
embrace a community-based environ-
ment more enthusiastically than law
firms or financial services, the design-
ers agreed.
“Defining what collaboration means
to the specific organization is impor-
tant,” saidTabor. “One company’s col-
laboration is not necessarily another’s.”
Focus-Time Areas
To identify the needs of a company, a
design teammust investigate how the
company operates – who the employ-
ees are, what are their needs, how do
they work, what in the current work-
place isn’t helping them, etc.They also
must understand what the employees
do throughout the day to determine
if they’re spending a majority of their
time collaborating or focusing at their
desk, said Liebling.
“If you’re going to have an open
office, you must also provide private
areas,” said Sunset. “Executive and
employee needs and desires are not
universal.While marketing and sales
departments generally work best in
more flexibile and open environments,
legal, accounting and human resources
may still need and desire more private
workspaces. Hitting the sweet spot in
terms of balance is the key.”
Gensler has four workplace profiles
to classify work modes, which are
focus, collaborate, learn and socialize.
“In top-performing companies, survey
results and feedback from employees
rank those modes high,” Spatz said.
“More recently, however, there has
been recognition that paying attention
only to the collaborative side of a work
environment can have some pretty det-
rimental downsides,” saidTabor. “One
cannot collaborate effectively unless
you also have time to focus, reflect and
concentrate.”
When visiting a client’s space, Spatz
said she might notice a collaborative
space right next to workstations.This
location leads to many potential con-
flicts if rules are not established about
when to collaborate and who can use
the area, she said. “They have this con-
dition they’re fighting – and they didn’t
realize they were fighting it – that the
collaboration area is actually disrupt-
ing the people around it,” she said. “A
lot of our clients don’t know that.The
people sitting there know it, but some-
times those people aren’t the squeaky
wheels. Squeaky wheels get replaced.”
All four designers also stressed the
importance of a variety of spaces. Sun-
set said she likes to vary the type of
seating to provide options for usability,
including bar-top-height tables with bar
stools for quick meetings and casual
meeting rooms with upholstered fur-
niture to embrace a living room feel for
longer, informal conversations.
“There’s a series of different needs
for an organization,” said Spatz.These
needs must embrace different postures
Courtesy David Lauer Photography
Shared conference and lounge-style meeting rooms serve as building amenities for all tenants at the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado,
designed by Gensler.
Courtesy David Lauer Photography
The Railyard multipurpose room at IMA Financial Group, designed by Semple Brown, includes a complimentary Starbucks barista,
healthy food choices, a foosball and pingpong table, and outdoor patio to increase interaction.